Spring Seeds: Red wheat packs a profit punch

2009 red wheat experience has encouraged Sentry’s Robert Kilby (pictured) to grow more in 2010.

Large premiums, low nitrogen requirements and a flexible sowing window made growers notice Canadian red wheat variety, AC Barrie, last season.

And with Rank Hovis committed to sourcing all milling wheat, including red wheat, from the UK, the interest should remain, despite contract premiums reducing this spring.

Robert Kilby, farm manager at Sentry Farms-operated Whelan Farms is one grower who jumped on the red wheat bandwagon. He grew his first crop of AC Barrie last spring after failing to establish second wheat in the wet autumn.

Grown as a second wheat on a £300/t contract through Premium Crops for Rank Hovis Mills, he saw it as an opportunity to up his wheat area and reduce low profitable break crops.

“We went in with our eyes open expecting poor standing and disease resistance so we made sure it had a full fungicide and growth regulator programme.”

But ideal spring growing conditions meant the crop achieved 4.8t/ha and suffered from very little disease, he says. “We just had a bit of late mildew.”

It gave the highest gross margin on the farm of £1160/ha with a net margin over fixed costs of £942/ha.

Protein content was slightly low at 14.8% just missing the Rank Hovis requirement of 15%, which could result in a £1/t reduction, he says. “It’s probably our fault as we didn’t put enough N on, but I didn’t want it to go over and increase lodging risk,” he says. “I think I’ll tweak it a bit next year and apply another 20kg/ha N in June.”

It received 104kg/ha as urea in two applications in mid March and end of April.

“We have limited storage so the low bulk is a bonus. It also reduces corn carting and drying costs,” he says. “But you do have to store it until January or take a kick on price if want it moved at harvest.”

Mr Kilby has doubled his red wheat area to 90ha for 2010, with 50ha already sown in October, dressed with Latitude (silthiofam) seed treatment.

“We put it in as a bit of an experiment and it will be interesting to see how it performs against the spring-planted crop.”

Winter planting offers no yield benefit, but helps spread the workload, he says. “However, my agronomist is quite concerned about disease control and keeping the crop upright.”

Contracts weren’t released until October unlike last year, he noted. “I took a risk and planted, but they may have missed some growers who wouldn’t wait.” The £135/t over base premium is not quite as attractive as last year’s £170/t or fixed rate of £300/t, he notes.

Watch out for disease

Spring wheat crops require careful disease management and red wheat is no exception, says Hampshire Arable Systems agronomist Steve Cook.

Keep a careful eye on second generation gout fly which lay eggs on flag leaves in late May, he says. “The larvae hatch, crawl down the flag leaf and eat the stem just below ear – in extreme cases the ear won’t even emerge.”

He saw several cases last year, particularly in the south, but populations have reduced over the past few years, he notes. “This is due partly to the use of Deter-dressed (clothianidin) seed in autumn sowings, taking out the autumn generation.”

Dursban (chlorpyrifos) is the only option if gout fly is detected on flag leaves in the spring, he says.

Mildew can be a major problem in AC Barrie. “Two applications of mildew protectant fungicide such as Talius (proquinazid) or Flexity (metrafenone) should be sufficient.”

Ergot can also be a problem, but the high gross margins mean growers can afford to gravity separate if they need to, he says.